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Start Right – Your new recruit deserves it

Starting out with a new employee is often a huge step for a small business, yet for a big business a routine occurrence. No matter the size of your organisation you can play a positive part in the process by following some simple guidelines. This will take the stress off you, make the new person feel at ease and help the whole team come to grips with the changes at hand.

Image courtesy of renjith krishnan

Training – From an induction program to the end of their probation period, don’t leave any ‘stone unturned’ ensure the new person is fully trained to do their role, follow the safety principles and other things they have to do in the company. The worst thing to have happen if they don’t make it through the probation period is if they say “But I wasn’t trained…” save a messy separation by doing the right thing.

The team puts in – The other people the new recruit will work with probably need to be aware of the start date, be armed with a little bit of knowledge about the person and how they can make the start up for enjoyable for the newbie. Also ensure they don’t pass on too much difficult work in the start up phase. Oh and the feedback they might have about the person should be loaded with facts, not here say and rumor. (just sayin’)

Clear, positive feedback – End of day one… “How was it today?” is a general discussion point and due to the emotions, excitement etc they might be a little low on in depth responses. However down the track short sharp meetings about how they learnt new things, and possible issues they can be assisted with can be positive ways to find out how they are going as well as providing direction for positive growth. Ten at the end of the probation period there can be no surprises, just solid facts to work with.

Role clarity – The job description looked great, the details now the new person is in the role might well be different. The way that person did these ‘sorts’ of things in previous position/s might well be better (or just different) perhaps some in depth discussion on how things are done and why can be very interesting.

Make things easy… – The first day or three can be very nerve wracking, build up slowly from the early introductions and ‘where to find things’ to small chunks of information on job specific points then into the work load little by little. Avoid being some power freak and making them sweat from day one by ‘throwing them in the deep end’ surely we are past being cruel to people and realise you can get far more productivity out of people by being positive and nice.

Great culture? Prove it! – The positive company values look good on paper, but take a look around are they happening in real life? If so use those real life examples to discuss the positive aspects of the organisation with the new recruit. This shows how your cultural guidelines have worked, it indicates to them you take the Philosophy of the business seriously and hint that they should have the culture of the business in mind at ever step.

Guidelines – To get to the end of the probation period is one thing, it’s simply time based, but to be able to measure up to company expectations is another. So what will you measure to be able to say with confidence ‘you made it’? Saying things like “Look there’s a bad vibe about all this” is simply disgraceful there is little substance to work with. On the other hand “We have looked at your work output, the way you handled customers, interaction and understanding in the initial training sessions has been to standard, welcome aboard!” All of these things are measurable, factual and can provide a solid basis to make a decision on.